Fair Trade

Second Life at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum

I have been intrigued with Second Life ever since I found out about it several months ago. (IBM is reseaching possibilities for the use of this type of technology, and several folks at work blog on our internal blog about it, which is where it initially caught my attention.) I am convinced that this real-time, internet enabled, interactive virtual technology will completely change the landscape and usage of the internet in the very near future. The possible applications of this type of technology boggle my mind. I can envision your ‘Avatar’ (or client GUI) as your 3D browser if you will, and virtual 3D locations and events as the ‘web sites’ that you will visit. Once standards are in place for the client and the ‘host’ sites, you could virtually shop, attend events, and explore any metaverse available.

It appears that Second Life type technology has also captured the attention of some non-techie types as well. There was a session devoted to it at the recently concluded Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum. The session, entitled The Age of the Avatar and Multiple Identities, examined the implications of this new technology for the entertainment industry, business and e-commerce and, most importantly, for human social interaction.

A great example of how Second Life can be used to interactively involve the remote internet community, real-time, in an event like the Annual Meeting of the WEF can be seen by taking a look at Adam Reuter’s ‘coverage’ of the event on the Reuters Second Life Site. Reuters interviewed several of the attendees at the meeting as Second Life events that other SL resident could attend in-world, real time in SL. You can access videos of the interviews from links listed on the home page.

I found the interview with Peter Gabriel especially stimulating. Peter has always been a master at utilizing cutting edge technology in very creative ways. For example, he was one of the first people/organizations to obtain a Fairlight CMI back in the early 80s and utilized it extensively on several albums. (See Note below.) In this interview he shares some fascinating ideas for innovative applications of SL technology for NGOs, charitible organizations, and, of course, musicians.

Note: I was impressed by this because we were fortunate, I think only 2 US universities at the time had one, to have a Fairlight at UW-M when I was there working on my masters in music. In fact, I utilized it to create a track that I used in my thesis research, Effect of music on motor unit firing in the frontalis muscle. UW-M Library, M 9999 .J34, 1987.

I couldn’t resist including a few pictures of the new Fairlight products. They are so beautiful.

See you in SL!

© 2007 Life is an Ongoing Process.